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Selection Process
A new common read title is selected every two years in support of the Diversity Council's common theme. At the conclusion of the first year of a common read, the Cardinal Reads committee solicits book suggestions from the NIC community that align with the common theme purpose and outcomes. The committee then reviews and scores each title using a rubric. Review copies of the four highest scoring titles are secured from the publishers (if available) and read by the committee. The committee then repeats the scoring process using a second rubric and the highest scored title is selected as the next common read.
Nominated Titles
We received the following book nominations in support of the 2020-22 common theme, Common Ground: Science, Technology, and Society.
Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor
by Virginia Eubanks
"Today, automated systems―rather than humans―control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. In Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America. ” -- Publisher's site
The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption
by Jamail Dahr
"The End of Ice offers a firsthand chronicle—including photographs throughout of Jamail on his journey across the world—of the catastrophic reality of our situation and the incalculable necessity of relishing this vulnerable, fragile planet while we still can.” -- Publisher's site
The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanityby Byron Reese
"We are now on the doorstep of a fourth change brought about by two technologies: AI and robotics. The Fourth Age provides extraordinary background information on how we got to this point, and how—rather than what—we should think about the topics we’ll soon all be facing: machine consciousness, automation, employment, creative computers, radical life extension, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare, superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity." -- Publisher's site
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
"After thinking for days, Shelley dreamed about a scientist who created
life and was horrified by what he had made; her dream later evolved into
the story within the novel." -- Publisher's site
Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trashby Edward Humes
"In Garbology, Edward Humes investigates trash—what’s in it; how much we pay for it; how we manage to create so much of it; and how some families, communities, and even nations are finding a way back from waste to discover a new kind of prosperity. " -- Publisher's site
Hello World: Being Human in an Age of Algorithmsby Hannah Fry
"Hello World takes us on a tour through the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us on a daily basis. By weaving in relatable, real world stories with accessible explanations of the underlying mathematics that power algorithms, Hello World helps us to determine their power, expose their limitations, and examine whether they really are improvement on the human systems they replace." -- Publisher's site
A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligenceby Kartik Hosanagar
"Hosanagar draws on his experiences designing algorithms professionally--as well as on history, computer science, and psychology--to explore how algorithms work and why they occasionally go rogue, what drives our trust in them, and the many ramifications of algorithmic decision-making." -- Publisher's site
iGen: why today's super-connected
kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy-- and
completely unprepared for adulthood (and what this means for the rest of
us)by Jean Twenge
"With generational divides wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today’s rising generation of teens and young adults." -- Publisher's site
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
"This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the
collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery
and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the
mother she never knew.” -- Publisher's site
Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
by Adam Alter
"By reverse engineering behavioral addiction, Alter explains how we can
harness addictive products for the good—to improve how we communicate
with each other, spend and save our money, and set boundaries between
work and play—and how we can mitigate their most damaging effects on our
well-being, and the health and happiness of our children." -- Publisher's site
Lab Girl
by Hope Jehren
"And she extends the mantle of scientist to each one of her
readers, inviting us to join her in observing and protecting our
environment. Warm, luminous, compulsively readable, Lab Girl vividly demonstrates the mountains that we can move when love and work come together." -- Publisher's site
The Martian: A Novel
by Andy Weir
"The best book I've read in ages. Clear your schedule before you crack the seal. This story will take your breath away faster than a hull breech. Smart, funny, and white-knuckle intense, The Martian is everything you want from a novel." -- Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of Wool
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains
by Nicholas Carr
"Carr provides a deep, enlightening examination of how the Internet influences the brain and its neural pathways. Carr’s analysis incorporates a wealth of neuroscience and other research, as well as philosophy, science, history and cultural developments ... His fantastic investigation of the effect of the Internet on our neurological selves concludes with a very humanistic petition for balancing our human and computer interactions ... Highly recommended." -- The American Conservative
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
by Anne Fadiman
"Unable to enter the Laotian forest to find herbs for Lia that will "fix her spirit," her family becomes resigned to the Merced County emergency system, which has little understanding of Hmong animist traditions. Fadiman reveals the rigidity and weaknesses of these two ethnographically separated cultures. In a shrinking world, this painstakingly researched account of cultural dislocation has a haunting lesson for every healthcare provider.” -- Library Journal
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (On Order)
by David Wallace-Wells
"The Uninhabitable Earth is both a meditation on the devastation we have brought upon ourselves and an impassioned call to action." -- Publisher's site
Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the Worldby Bill Nye
"With a scientist's thirst for knowledge and an engineer's vision of what can be, Bill Nye sees today's environmental issues not as insurmountable, depressing problems but as chances for our society to rise to the challenge and create a cleaner, healthier, smarter world." -- Publisher's site